Athletes Are Low Down, Dirty, Rotten Cheaters...Now Get Over It!

It seems today that whenever someone is caught being dishonest in the sporting world a black hole is going to open up and consume the entire planet.  Small children cry.  Old men shout.  Young women shake their heads. 

A small piece of all of us dies when we hear that our latest hero wasn't playing by all the rules. 

At least, that's what we'd have you think.

People don't seem to want to pull their heads out of the sand and realize that professional athletes have been scheming and cheating and cheap-shotting their way to victory since before any of us were born.

Even though we all might love damning A-Rod, Manny, and The New England Patriots for getting caught cheating, the amount of outrage produced by dishonesty in the sports world today is outrageous and shameful in itself.

Let me make one thing absolutely clear: I do not condone or tolerate dishonesty or unsportsmanlike conduct from athletes.  I do support disciplinary actions taken by respective leagues when they catch any of their players, officials, or managerial figures acting improperly. 

I do not, however, support the subsequent crucifixion and media circus that seems to come along with every instance of breaking the rules in sports today.

There seems to be excessive public concern in particular when it comes to Major League Baseball and steroids.

Mad as Hell, and Not Going to Take it Anymore!

Over the past few weeks, I have seen several articles on B/R and elsewhere calling for season-long suspensions for first-time offenses.  People condemning players for their entire careers after finding they used HGH to recover from injury.

I'm not going to bother going into my opinion on the ongoing steroid saga in baseball, I've already written that article.  But after reading an article (a poorly written one, in my opinion) here on B/R suggesting that Alex Rodriguez should receive a lifetime ban for allegedly "tipping pitches," I couldn't hold my tongue any longer.

People need to stop fooling themselves.  Cheating is nothing new in sports.  We see players cheat in every game of every season.  We see them break the rules to try to gain unfair advantages all the time.  Sometimes it is in the heat of the moment, sometimes it is premeditated.  Sometimes they get away with it, sometimes they don't.

A player grabs a facemask, shuffles his feet to get better position on a pick, corks his bat, takes steroids, gives a dirty check. 

Some of these offenses are more serious than others (depending on what sport it occurs in) but that's why their respective leagues have disciplinary actions in place, no lynch mob required.

Cheating has been going on since the dawn of competition, and yet, only recently do people seem to be having such a problem with it. 

I'm not saying that cheating was accepted before now, but people don't want to accept the punishments assigned by leagues anymore.

Double Standard

One great irony is the double standard that seems to exist between leagues.

Manny Ramirez was suspended a massive 50 games (roughly a third of a season) for testing positive and fans and writers alike screamed that it was not nearly enough. 

Shawn Merriman was suspended four games (one quarter of a season) for testing positive and not only did no one seem to really care, but Merriman narrowly missed being voted the "defensive player of the year" by the Associated Press.

In Basketball, arguably the most strict league when it comes to rule enforcement, if a player so much as comes on the court out of turn he is suspended for one game. 

In hockey, a man knocks another man unconscious with his fist he is suspended for FIVE MINUTES!

It is easy (and maybe even fun) to attack big targets like Alex Rodriguez and The New England Patriots, but do we really have the game's best interest at heart or are we just going beserk for the chance to tear down something we don't particularly like?

I celebrated the witch hunt by the media of the New England Patriots for "Spy-Gate", but when you look at it objectively they were only guilty on a technicality (which supposedly several other teams are guilty of) and all other accusations against them ended up being almost entirely unsubstantiated.

With A-Rod, not only is he being crucified for breaking rules that didn't even exist when he "broke them" and other transgressions that there is no solid evidence of (I.E. "pitch tipping") but there are countless other players who have received far less criticism than he simply because they don't admit their wrong doing.

In a sense, A-Rod has done more to fight steroids in baseball than almost any other active player.

Rounding up the "Guilty"

People want to burn the convicted while the guilty roam free.  But why stop at A-Rod?  We can do so much more to clean up sports and right past wrongs.

First, lets kick Cy Young out of the Hall of Fame.  That guy threw spitballs constantly, if someone did that today we'd run em' out of town on a rail.

Andy Pettitte thinks he can use HGH to recover from an injury before baseball even made it a banned substance!?  Well, that guy's days of getting off easy are over.  Banned for life.

Pretty much the whole Steelers and Raiders organizations was on steroids in the late 70s.  Sorry, Madden, you're a Super Bowl Champion no longer.

As I write this, Michael Cuddyer pretended to be hit by a pitch in order to get a free base.  Unacceptable.  Let's shoot him!

The "Tuck Rule" Game never really sat right with me, and besides, I don't particularly like the Patriots, so someone call Al Davis; The Raiders are going back to the Super Bowl...in 2002.

And what kind of BS was Maradona's "Hand of God" play.  Congratulations, England!  We're proud to award you your first World Cup in 43 years...23 years ago.

Come Down Off Your Holy Mount

I don't want everyone to start to like cheaters.  I just want people to accept that cheating happens, we all do it, and we need to move on after a player does it.

Everyone cheats a little.  Sometimes we get caught, sometimes we don't.  Either way, we're going to keep right on cheating.

Sometimes I try to cheat when I'm playing wiffleball, and I don't even get paid to win wiffleball games. 

I can't even imagine how sneaking and coniving I'd be if I got paid millions of dollars a year to win wiffleball games.  Well, actually yes I can.

I've even cheated Bleacher Report

That's right, I've cheated Bleacher Report by creating multiple accounts in an (unbelievably feeble) attempt to up readership on some of my earlier articles.  I've since given up on the practice, since it is remarkably tedious. 

But I did it.  It was dishonest.  I didn't technically break any "rule" and I'm certain I'm not the first to do it. 

But I'm the first to admit it here now and I await to recieve my punishment from Zander or whoever, here on B/R.

If it is anything like what some punishments people have had in mind for Manny Ramirez, then I guess I'll be seeing you in the funny papers.  Nice to know ya and have a beautiful day.